I found a cure for an "incurable" disease. Okay, I didn't invent or discover this cure myself. I got it from my doctor. But as far as the public is concerned, this "disease" is still incurable. The reason for that is partly a matter of perception, and partly a matter of technology. You see, I even had surgery to "cure" this problem, yet, frankly even that did not prove to be a cure. Now, just in case anyone reading this has developed a personal fondness for me or my written ramblings, no, fortunately I am not referring to a fatal disease. It's not cancer, we are talking about her.
The "disease" I am talking about in this instance is one that does destroy marriages in some severe cases. It is snoring.
Truly there are no "commercial" over-the-counter cures for snoring. Some treatments help some people, some of the time. Even surgery, the unpronounceable uvulo-pharyngial-tonsilectomy is not an absolute cure, especially if the patient has a significant weight gain after the surgery. There's a more "modern" version which uses microwave "cooking" of the palate tissue at the back of the top of your throat. It's considered an out-patient procedure, and by literally "cooking" bits of tissue up there, scars form then stiffen and reduce the rattling, not to mention widening the opening so that there is more room for the air to pass down the throat unobstructed. Still, not a reliable "cure" by most accounts, though it can be a significant help if you are faced with that or painful sessions on the divorce lawyers' couches.
But there is a "cure" that works, almost 100% of the time, and has the great advantage that it is designed to help with the "dangers" of snoring, which involve stopping breathing during sleep. This condition is known as "apnea", and is far more common than you might think. Almost everyone who snores has it to some degree. The throat closes up, and the person stops breathing for some length of time. Stopping breathing for more than a minute or so starts to be very bad for the amount of oxygen in your blood, and therefore the amount of oxygen that reaches your brain. So the mechanical solution which is NOT available as an over-the-counter treatment helps to force that air into your lungs. It is known as Continuous Positive Air Pressure or CPAP (a slightly more advanced version that should have replaced the original CPAP is called, Bi-PAP, which stands for Bi-level Positive Air Pressure, and helps further by monitoring inhalation and exhalations, making breathing easier).
CPAP, blows air into your lungs while you sleep. Although several versions are available, the most common is still a face-mask that covers nose and mouth. The large tube that supplies the low pressure (but higher than normal air pressure) air attaches to a slightly noisy machine, and for many people a reservoir of water to keep the air from drying out the tissues of your airway during the night. The reason it covers both mouth and nose is that, although there are versions that just pipe the air into your nose, and appear to be at least slightly more comfortable than the one I used, if you open your mouth, the air simply escapes into the room without ever passing into your lungs, unless you keep your mouth tightly closed, therefore, it is doing you no good.
So why, if it cures snoring (a far less than fatal problem that is nearly as common as the common cold), are these wonder devices not selling like hotcakes at your local department and grocery stores? You need a prescription to get one. I don't think this is because the eye-ear-nose and throat specialists' physicians association created a conspiracy to prevent their business from evaporating overnight. I do think it may be partly a clever means of blurring potential liability if anything did go wrong that, "the doctor ordered it" and it is therefore presumably medically safe. The odd thing is that it does have to be just the RIGHT pressure of additional air being pushed into your lungs. Otherwise, the lungs (your diaphragm in particular), might be overwhelmed by too high a pressure and unable to empty the lungs pushing the old air out. You won't puff up like a weather balloon, but if nose and mouth are, in effect, sealed, too high a pressure might never allow your body to exhale.
These devices can be made rather cheaply, and even at their current costs of a few hundred dollars, I expect that the profits are not as great as the makers would like because so much is probably spent on liability insurance and fighting off law suits from grieving families looking for someone to blame for their loss. Alas, there are two factors that make this ripe opportunity less than ideally attractive. The requirement that you have a prescription to obtain one, and the plane old discomfort of having to wear a breathing mask while sleeping.
I was excited enough about the fact that such devices can cure snoring problems that I explored manufacturing them. The costs, as I said are modest. The legal hurdle of prescriptions being required is, in my opinion at least, one that makes them non-viable at this time.
I feel somewhat the same about biobutanol at this point too. I love the advantages it offers. The newest processes for producing it look both economically viable and practical. Yet the industry is already embarked on other courses that look to make biobutanol a tough alternative to champion. In the short term it is unlikely to come up the dominant force in alternative fuel, and unless some secret research is going on to increase the energy density to make is a practical aviation replacement (for kerosene type fuels), then biodiesel is likely to win in that space too.
O2Diesel Corp. has reportedly received an additional $1 million (yes, just million) to continue its demonstration projects to DARPA and the DoD that biodiesel can become a more significant part of military operations. There aren't universally accepted standards for making biodiesel the cold-starting, highly versatile "battlefield fuel of the future" that JP-8 has won for itself. On the other hand, it should be possible in the not-too-distant future to blend far beyond the 5% Ford is willing to admit may not be troublesome in current Ford diesel motors. Renault announced recently that it is building B30 (30% blend of Biodiesel to conventional petroleum diesel) trucks this year.
I saw a report on a recently converted biodiesel plant where the owner was citing costs of about $0.33 per pound for soybean oil versus $0.19 for chicken fat. Now I don't know what net biodiesel this plant expects to render from chicken fat, but $0.19 per pound works out to $380 per ton (short ton) and $0.33 per pound comes out at about $660 per ton, so the 43% saving might look attractive if the market for chicken fat doesn't heat up too quickly once it has been recognized as a usable source for biodiesel. Tyson, the chicken people, already have started experiments, as have several other food companies. Then, of course, there is ConAgra who have partnered with Changing World Technologies on the much anticipated pilot program for turkey parts processing. I will refrain from speculating on the overall results of CWT's first production plant, but it would appear that plain chicken fat might be simpler to process into biodiesel than sundry and random bits of turkey, fat, lean and otherwise. On the other hand, random bits of turkey have a strong argument in their favor as a feedstock too. There is, after all, no ready market for random bits of turkey after the carcass has been stripped of every other usable McNugget, so the price has got to be attractive.
Which, of course, brings me back to my favorite topic, sewage. We are opening discussions with several companies on the topic. Stay tuned for more of the slosh-buckling adventures of Captain "Doc" BioPoop, next week, or sometime soon thereafter.
Love
Stafford "Doc" Williamson
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